Call for Papers for the Online Workshop Series: "Women and Mail Art: Gendered Perspectives on Marginal Artistic Practices".
Dates: October 11th, 18th, 25th, 2024, 14:00-17:00 CET.

Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Agata Jakubowska, University of Warsaw
Prof. Dr. Elize Mazadiego, University of Bern.

There is extensive research on international contacts, forms of connection and networks among neo-avant-garde artists developed through their artistic production, yet, their gender aspect remains largely ignored. Meanwhile, in the same period, feminist art developed intensively, and many feminist artists participated in international exchanges of neo-avant-garde circles. This workshop seeks to address the participation of women artists in global avant-garde art networks, whose activity remains largely eclipsed by their male counterparts. It concentrates on mail art as a specific art practice but also includes other types of related artworks (DIY publications, artist’s books, experimental visual poetry and concrete poetry) that circulated between artists. This 3-part workshop aims to explore the activities of women artists and the presence of gender/feminist issues in mail art, visual poetry, and art publications. In a series of presentations, we propose to discuss new research on the subject, extend our knowledge of particular artists, artworks and projects and encourage reflection on conceptual frameworks within which we approach alternative practices of women artists.

We invite interdisciplinary scholarship from academics, researchers, postgraduates and practitioners.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
-women artists active in mail art
-women artists as networkers and other significant roles, identities and positionalities
-networks of women’s visual/concrete poetry (publications and exhibitions)
-specific artworks and their circulation
-DIY publications as a feminist medium in a transnational perspective
-conditions of artistic production: material, technical, economic, social, etc.
-forms of solidarity (political or otherwise)
-gendered perspectives on marginal communication and systems theory
-political responses to repression and censorship
-reception and modes of visibility/invisibility

Please submit an abstract of approximately 300 words together with a short biographical note (150 words max.) in a single document (word doc or pdf) to:
womenandmailartgmail.com by 15 June 2024.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 10 July 2024.